FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT PALESTINIAN ISRAELI - PAGE 2

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Thursday heeded U.S. warnings to keep the lid on violent protests over an Israeli decision to build a large new Jewish settlement in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem. Arafat attacked the plan, already condemned by the United States and many other countries, as a serious breach of Palestinian-Israeli peace agreements. But officials of his Fatah Party reined in youths marching to the site where Israel plans to build 6,500 Jewish homes on a pine-covered ridge captured in the 1967 Middle East War. Organizers continually urged protesters not to throw stones or confront Israeli troops barring the way at the foot of the hill, known to Arabs as Jabal Abu Ghneim and by Israelis as Har Homa.

Teddy Kollek, Jerusalem's father figure, major civic booster and moderate-minded mayor for the past 25 years, was furious. "I feel offended by the lack of knowledge of what's going on by some important people who are our friends," grumbled the 79-year-old Kollek. He was so angry last week over recent remarks by U.S. officials that he called a special City Council meeting in the Jerusalem suburb of Neve Yaakov, which was built 18 years ago in the area Israel took from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War. Kollek's message at the meeting in the 18,000-resident suburb was that his city-Jerusalem, including Arab land annexed by Israel-would never be divided again.

Israeli troops withdrew from Bethlehem on Thursday, four days after taking over the Palestinian city in search of militants suspected of plotting terrorist attacks. The withdrawal came as senior Western diplomats traveled to the region in a renewed push to end the deadly Palestinian-Israeli impasse. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns met with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to discuss ways to reform the Palestinian Authority. Later, Burns expressed support for negotiations that would result in a Palestinian state.

For nearly two weeks, President Bush has dangled the promise of a new Mideast framework to guide Israelis and Palestinians toward peace. But with each passing day, events in the volatile region threaten to overtake his efforts. Tuesday's suicide bombing in Jerusalem vividly dramatized the imperative Bush faces to deliver a plan that offers physical security to Israelis and political hope to Palestinians before a renewed cycle of violence dooms any fresh political initiatives. Bush had been expected to make his Mideast announcement Tuesday or Wednesday, but White House officials said that it was now unlikely to come before Thursday.

By George de Lama, Chicago Tribune. Tribune correspondent Tom Hundley in Israel contributed to this report | March 8, 1991

Secretary of State James A. Baker III, beginning a postwar peace mission to the Middle East, said Thursday he would welcome talks with Palestinian leaders in Israel next week, if any are willing to meet with him. At the same time, President Bush's bold outline for a new order in the Middle East got a chilly reception in Israel, where Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir is unyieldingly opposed to trading land for peace. The secretary of state would not identify which Palestinian leaders he would be willing to see during his first visit to the Jewish state, nor would he set conditions.

Moshe Zamir was 10 when he discovered himself a stranger in his own land. He and his parents were living in Iraq, an Arab nation where Jewish families had lived peacefully since biblical days. But with the founding of Israel in 1948, relations between the two communities rapidly deteriorated. During a wave of anti-Jewish rioting, his father was riding on a Baghdad bus when a crowd started pulling Jews off and killing them, including his father's seatmate. Soon afterward, the Zamirs sought refuge in Israel.

Israel and the Palestinians agreed to a cease-fire Saturday to end a five-month Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip and the firing of rockets by Palestinian militants into the Jewish state--a major step toward possibly reviving stalled peace talks. The Israeli military said early Sunday that all its troops were withdrawn from Gaza in the hours before the 6 a.m. (11 p.m. Saturday EST) cease-fire took effect. The truce announcement was a significant achievement for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as he tries to put together a more moderate government to replace the one currently led by Hamas.

Palestinians stoned Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers in Hebron, West Bank, Friday after settlers blocked Palestinian motorists from using a road near their enclave and then marched into the Palestinian-run sector of the divided city. Israeli soldiers fired rubber bullets to disperse the stone-throwers and eventually escorted the group of about 20 settlers, most of them women, back into the Israeli-controlled downtown area. The clashes were triggered by the Israeli army's decision to open a road near the Jewish enclave of Avraham Avinu.

Israeli troops fired tear gas at stone-throwing Palestinians in clashes late Sunday in the West Bank town of Hebron, injuring scores of demonstrators, witnesses said. In a separate West Bank incident, an Israeli bus driver was injured when rocks hurled by Palestinians shattered the vehicle's windshield, an army spokeswoman said. The witnesses said the Hebron clashes erupted when soldiers intervened in a dispute between clans. Hundreds of Palestinians streamed into the area, and 60 Palestinians were taken to hospitals suffering from tear gas inhalation, witnesses said.